Rogers Hornsby Chapter meeting recap - 01/12/2013

By Gilbert Martinez

The largest winter meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter had a little bit of everything on Saturday, January 12, 2013: updates on the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, a statistical analysis of the psychology of umpires calling balls and strikes, the Texas League president’s perspective on his duties, a preview of the 2014 SABR convention and a review of 1840s-era baseball in New York.

Fifty-one SABR members and guests gathered at historic Old Main on the campus of Texas State University for the seventh annual winter meeting – the largest attendance ever, including a dozen members from the Larry Dierker Chapter (Houston), which is hosting the SABR convention in Houston in 2014.

Longtime Astros broadcaster Bill Brown talked about his return to the television booth for the upcoming season, including his thoughts about the Astros chances in the American League West. He also brought and signed his memoir, “My Baseball Journey: A Sportcaster’s Story,” proceeds of which support the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias.